I think whether a planner is worth it depends on a few things.
If you’re just barely getting by with no expendable money, then there is not many decisions to be made and a planner will not help.
If you have extra income but there are clear-cut choices for where to put it (employer-matched 401K or profit sharing), then again a planner will not help much.
If, after paying bills and stashing $$ in clear-cut choices, you *still* have extra income, a planner may well be worth a one-time session. (we are in this situation…we’ve made our plan and now we pay bills first, pay “ourselves” second by putting $$ back, and whatever’s left we enjoy!)
In any of the three situations, you are going to want to figure out how much money you are going to need for retirement so you’ll know whether you are on target to meet your goals. That can either be done on your own (lots of good software tools now) or with a planner.
